


Juniper's Child

by EllowynTheNotKing



Series: Mist Orhi's Mysteries [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Badass lady cop, Child violence, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Mystery, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, more chapters coming
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 17:23:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18077741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllowynTheNotKing/pseuds/EllowynTheNotKing
Summary: When a young boy goes missing, presumed dead, Detective Mist Orhi must go on the hunt to find the boy's killer. But when the boy's sister and the evidence tell two different stories, she has to get to the bottom of a case involving deceit, child abuse, and poisoning.Detective Mist Orhi is a young detective working in the big city. When she chose to become a cop, she never thought she'd have days like this.





	1. Brewed Awakening

**Author's Note:**

> “The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When a young boy goes missing, presumed dead, Detective Mist Orhi must go on the hunt to find the boy's killer. But when the boy's sister and the evidence tell two different stories, she has to get to the bottom of a case involving deceit, child abuse, and poisoning.  
> Detective Mist Orhi is a young detective working in the big city. When she chose to become a cop, she never thought she'd have days like this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic.”  
> G.K. Chesterton, The Blue Cross: A Father Brown Mystery

Being called into the office early wasn’t a new thing a new thing for Detective Orhi. She had been a cop for long enough that her sleep being interrupted at all hours of the day and night wasn’t too bad, but not long enough for her to stop being grumpy when it happened.

“Good morning my pretty Misty sunshine!” Her partner Hank Match calls from his car, too cheerful at too early in the morning.

She just groans as she folds herself into his small black clown car. Taking the coffee her partner offers and she looks him over. Hank is a reasonably handsome black man in his early fifties, you wouldn’t think he was that old just looking at him but his grays give him away. Comfortably dressed in a leather jacket, button-down, dark blue jeans and running shoes he doesn’t really look like a detective until you catch the badge hanging from his neck.

“Why are you so happy? Didn’t you have a terrible date last night?” Mist groans as her partner begins to pull back into traffic.

“Actually, my date went really well.”

“You called me at nine to say she was boring.”

“She was just nervous, she hadn’t been on a date with a detective before and was worried she was going to say something incriminating. Once she got some food and booze into her the date went great!” Hank bats a little rhythm on the steering wheel then flips on the radio.

Shaking her head Mist changes the conversation, “Do you know why we’re getting called in?”

“Something to do with a kidnapping gone bad I guess, I figured I’d wait till we got filled in to ask questions.” He takes in her dour expression, “Need me to get a different partner for this?”

“No. It’s just, I hate cases with kids.” Mist takes a long pull from her coffee and pulls a face. “I have no idea how you like this crap.”

“No one likes cases with kids. You’d like it more if you put milk or sugar or something in there. And if you don’t like it so much why do you keep drinking it?”

“Because caffeine is great.” Mist stares at him as she takes a slurping gulp from the coffee before snickering.

The two of them listen to the radio during the twenty minutes it takes them to get to the station. Hank parked quickly and the two of them all but ran to get to their desks. Within moments of getting there, they are handed files on the case by Sergeant James Wren.

“What do we know?” Hank asks Wren.

“Hawthorne Brennan. Fourteen-year-old male declared missing at around two A.M. after he missed his curfew of ten P.M. Stepmom Claudia Brennan says she got a call from him shortly after school saying he was going to a friend’s house to do schoolwork then hang out. When he didn’t call before dinner the family assumed that he was still at his friend’s house. When he didn’t call at or before his curfew they got worried but waited an hour to see if he would come home or call on a friend’s phone. Eleven P.M. they started calling as the parents of friends they knew along with all of the friend’s numbers that they knew. Everyone they were able to get in contact with said they hadn’t even seen him at school that day. The school has been contacted and they confirm that he wasn’t there, but they said that someone claiming to be his mother had called the school saying he wouldn’t be in. Stepmom says that it wasn’t her.” The sergeant pauses, anticipating the question Mist sends his way.

“Phone records?”

“Request has been sent, we’re just waiting for them to respond. Now let me divine your next question,” Wren puts his hands up to his head, takes a deep breath, and then completely casually says, “Why are you here at ungodly hours?’ Well, a lot of blood was found in the shed they primarily use for storage and considering the blood wasn’t dry yet we have to assume it’s from Hawthorn as no one in the house can definitively say where the blood is from.”

“Anything else we should know?” Hank says flipping through the folder.

“Father is Aster Brennan. He travels a lot for work, only got back from a work trip a few hours before all this. Claudia is Aster’s second wife, his first wife died due to complications during birth. Claudia has a daughter named Marjory who isn’t Aster’s but the bio father is in the wind and doesn’t even know about her.”

“Any outstanding suspects?”

“So far no one stands out in particular. But right now it’s looking like some doesn’t like one of the parents and decided to get revenge or a stranger killing.”

“What do the parents do that might draw enemies?” Mist turns and starts to the door.

The two men follow her slow pace, ”Well, the Aster Brennan is a businessman who has spent a lot of time coordinating and ensuring good relations for his company. But he has apparently stepped on a few toes in his years there. Claudia is a small-time criminal defense lawyer for the state.” Wren stops when they reach the elevators. “The address is in your files, at least you’ll be beating the early rush hour.”

“Yay.” Mist deadpans. As the door shuts she turns to Hank, “So, both parents have the potential for a lot of enemies. How do we wanna do this? Separate the step parents?”

“Yeah. They’ve got a girl too. files say twelve. Should we try to question her separately?”

“If the parents will allow it, there’s no telling what she may have seen.”

“You think she may be hiding something?” The door opens, Hank leads them to his car.

“She’s at the age where she’s just starting to feel like she’s not a child and she may be hiding things. Also, if she feels in any way guilty for her brother’s disappearance or death she sure as hell is going to clam up. It’s happened before.”

Together they drop into the car, Mist puts the address in their GPS and they’re off.

 


	2. Crime Scene Investigation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data.”   
> ― Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Being the early hour that it is, the drive takes them a little over half an hour. Significantly preferable to the time it would have taken had it been rush hour. They arrive at the small but comfortable looking house in the suburbs. Caution tape wiggles around the house in the light winds of the early hours. 

“Crime scene or interview the family first?” Mist asks once they’re both out of the car.

“Crime scene. I want to see it before I hear anything that may change my perceptions of the scene.” 

Mist nods and starts walking towards the shack just barely visible from the front of the house. 

“Hold up, where are you going?” Hank says before she gets more than a couple of feet. 

“To… the crime scene?” Mist points at the shack to emphasize. 

“No no no, come here. The crime scene is this entire area. Not just the place where someone may have died.” He sits her so she’s leaned back against his car. “From here. Take a moment, really look. What do you see?”

Mist pauses, she looks for anything that could be deemed important. “You can see the storage shed from the road. There are at least two exits from the house that you could see easily from here too. Do you think the shed is locked up most of the time?” 

“Good points and that’s a good question. The next question is: even if the shed wasn’t locked, where can you see it from in the house?”

“We should ask the neighbors if they’ve seen anything suspicious the last few weeks. Cars they don’t recognize, that kind of thing. Maybe someone they’ve never seen before jogging in the area or walking their dog in the area.”

“Good, why do you say weeks, not days?” Hank keeps her from looking at him. He’s trying to prove a point by keeping her pointed at the scene.

“The file said the family was all out of the house at the time the boy was either killed or went missing. If they are telling the truth then someone else did it. If the person who did it wasn’t on a revenge spree then they probably took a while to get ready for this. That and the neighbors may not think anything of a guy who started parking near a neighbors house a few weeks ago but will definitely remember someone who only did it yesterday. So we make sure that we aren’t limiting the pool of suspects too early.” 

“Good reasoning, let’s go look at the scene. But, take it slow. Watch the ground.”

“You do know I’ve been a detective for over a year right?” Mist challenges.

“Yes, but everyone can benefit from being told to slow down once in a while. Now, what’s around the crime scene? We can see the shed, but what’s outside the shed?”

“Outside the shed…” Mist sighs. Looking over the side of the shed she can see. She slowly walks around the shed, looking at the ground and the side of the shed is slow careful movements. “The door is damaged. There’s blood in the grass too. Leading to the back deck. There’s some blood there too. Smeared but there.” 

“What are you thinking?” Hank watches from over her shoulder. 

“Well, given that you won’t let me into the crime scene yet. I think someone broke the lock and carried something that had a lot of blood on it to the porch, where it sat for a while. Then they tried to clean up the blood from the porch but didn’t do so very well. Well, they did it well enough that if you weren’t looking for blood you wouldn’t notice it very quickly. But it's still pretty noticeable…” Mist trails off, murmuring to herself as she examines the door. 

Hank watches her for a moment, “What is it?”

“Transients.”

“What?”

“The perpetrator could have been a transient. It’s been getting cold at night. And who’s more stupidly brave than a fourteen-year-old boy? If someone was using family’s outside storage as a place to sleep and was going in or coming out and Hawthorn happened to see. He may have tried to scare the person away and got himself killed.”

“That’s a little far fetched.” Hank itches his cheek.

“Look at the lock, the damage looks old. We’ve seen similar things before. Also, I still haven’t been into the actual crime scene.” She shoots him a glare. “Now may I actually go into the crime scene or is there somewhere else I need to look first?”

“You’re good. Go on in.”

“Oh thank you, sooooo much.” Mist says in the most sarcastic manner she’s capable of. 

The two of them enter the small crime scene. The small shed seems even smaller for all the boxes inside. Most of the floor is covered in a dark puddle of blood that is drying and cracking at the edges. 

“No prints in the blood. Is it just me or does that side of the blood look odd?” Mist points to where part of the puddle is in a nearly perfect straight line. 

“Looks like something was there. Maybe one of the boxes was removed.” Hank steps over carefully and crouches near the puddle. Well, in a dry spot, most of the visible floor of the room is covered in blood, as well as some of the boxes. 

“Did CSI remove anything?” 

“They shouldn’t have. A couple of the guys should be inside, we can ask.”

“We should ask for photos they took too. Just in case.” Mist looks around the room, “It would have happened here. This looks like arterial spray to me. God, he so close to home.” 

“We don’t have time to think stuff like that. Is there anything else here we need to see?” Hank stands fully.

“No, nothing in here looks like it has anything to do with our case.”

“Anything in here support your ‘homeless person sleeping in the shed’ theory?” 

“No, there aren’t any signs of that. No refuse. Nothing in or on the shed denotes it was used for that purpose. No makeshift bedding or anything.” 

Hank steps out of the shed when Mist gets out he continues, “Now we talk to the family, figure out what they’ve seen or heard. See if anyone moved the boxes, see if anyone is lying about anything.”

“What are we looking for?” 

“If the parent’s are having affairs. If Hawthorn had any enemies. Anything that could lead to a suspect.”

**Author's Note:**

> Questions, comments, and prompts are always welcome.  
> If you notice something I forgot to tag please comment it and I'll fix it ASAP.


End file.
